Hung Sing Martial Arts Association

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

Practitioners of Chinese martial arts, Choy Lay Fut in
particular are exposed to a vast arsenal of traditional weapons during the
course their martial arts education. In today’s society the practical use of
such weapons has diminished somewhat. In the September/October 2007 issue of
Kung Fu Taichi magazine I wrote an article titled “Choy Lay Fut’s Moi Fah Dao,
Modern Function for an Ancient Weapon”. In this article I present the concepts
of sword usage and how these ideas can be applied to various implements that
are more common in modern life. It’s a fairly lengthy article and I feel it
covers that topic in detail. What I would like to cover in this blog entry is
the specific mechanics of weapons, the staff in particular, and how to make
proper use of the characteristics of that weapon.

Your Weapon is a Tool

Strength training is often one of the benefits attributed to
modern weapons training. To some extent weapons training can serve as a way to
add resistance to the types of movement you will also use in empty hand
fighting. I have a problem with this however. My Sifu always said in the old
days the people who were best with weapons were usually the farmers. It is
often believed that since farmers use tools daily for long periods of time that
they develop massive strength that they use to wield the weapons with deadly
purpose. I feel I can add some insight into why farmers and manual laborers are
seen to be “strong” with weapons.

I’ve done hard manual labor most of my life. Since the time I
could walk my father taught me how to dig with shovels, use sledge hammers and
picks and for the last five years I have worked full time as a landscaper. There
is little difference between the use of a shovel or sledge hammer and a staff
and through constant daily use of these implements my weapons techniques and
staff in particular have become more powerful. While the full time use of these
implements can increase physical strength in those who haven’t done any type of
resistance training, the real key to getting power into the implement lies in
basic science.

Scientific Principles for Powerful Staff Techniques

The reason we use tools and simple machines is to make our
work easier. If the goal of using a tool or weapon was to increase strength by
adding to our workload they would have been discarded long ago. When teaching
weapons techniques to my students often I tell them to use less effort, as my
father told me when I was young, let your tool do the work. The reason that
manual laborers were seen to have strong weapons techniques was because they
had countless hours of practice allowing the tool to do the work for them. If
it was raw physical strength that made the tool or weapon work then there would
be no way that an individual could get through an entire work day using the
implement. The same scientific principle behind the proper use of tools for
manual labor is what makes a weapon a more effective fighting implement than a
bare hand.

"Give me a place to stand, and I shall move the Earth with it"
–Archimedes

The fundamental principle behind all Staff/spear techniques is the lever. A lever
is a machine consisting of a beam or rigid rod pivoted at a fixed hinge, or fulcrum.
A lever amplifies an input force to provide a greater output force, which is
said to provide leverage.
The ratio of the output force to the input force is the ideal mechanical
advantage of the lever.

A lever is a beam connected to ground by a hinge, or pivot, called a
fulcrum. The ideal lever does not dissipate or store energy, which means there
is no friction in the hinge or bending in the beam. In this case, the power
into the lever equals the power out, and the ratio of output to input force is
given by the ratio of the distances from the fulcrum to the points of
application of these forces. This is known as the law of the lever.

Levers are classified by the relative positions of the
fulcrum and the input and output forces. It is common to call the input force the
effort and the output force the load or the resistance. This
allows the identification of three classes of levers by the relative locations
of the fulcrum, the resistance and the effort.

Class 1: Fulcrum in the middle: the effort is applied on one
side of the fulcrum and the resistance on the other side. Most techniques of
staff/spear fighting use this principle. Often the lead hand, or as I call it
pivot hand, acts as the fulcrum the rear hand applies the effort and the
striking end offers the resistance. In swinging techniques with the staff/spear
the body acts as the fulcrum.

Class 2: Resistance in the middle: the effort is applied on one
side of the resistance and the fulcrum is located on the other side. This
principle is applied in pressing or jamming techniques as well as many blocking
techniques using the middle of the shaft.

Class 3: Effort in the middle: the resistance is on one side of
the effort and the fulcrum is located on the other side. This principle is applied
in downward swinging motions and thrusting motions

Applied Science

When I teach weapons techniques
even the smallest details are of importance. The reason I usually give my
students is simple and colorful. I usually tell them that when fighting with
weapons the person who makes the even the smallest mistake can end up dead.
This is a truth of fighting with weapons and serves to inspire them to pay
attention to the details. However, another important reason to pay attention to
the structural details of weapons techniques is to gain the mechanical
advantages of the lever principles. In order to get the maximum effect you
should know where the resistance is, where the fulcrum is and where to apply
the effort. Below is a video of me demonstrating staff/spear techniques, in
each technique you can see the principles of one of the three classes of levers
applied.

Monday, March 25, 2013

Since I began posting training compilations and forms videos
on my YouTube page a few years ago I have received requests on a regular basis
for information in regards to the application of the martial arts techniques
presented in the videos. I don’t have a problem sharing information; I’ve
actually begun an informational series on my YouTube page to fulfill these
requests seen below.

I personally like to share ideas on fighting strategies and concepts
we employ for the benefit of the kung fu community as a whole. However, amongst
the typical requests for deeper insight into what I am displaying on video
often the person making the request seems to believe that once they are armed
with the “secret” knowledge of these applications they will have the ability to
employ the use of these techniques themselves.

Martial Arts Applications

When many people discuss martial arts applications they
often are referring to what many schools would call “step sparring” of “self
defense drills” in which they are attacked and the person performing the application
would respond with a series of movements while the attacker remains frozen like
a statue. Many times these sequences are heavily dependent on specific
reactions from the attacker, for example the attacker throws a punch the
defender parries the punch and knees the attacker in the midsection then while
the attacker bend over the hold his aching midsection the defender follows with
an elbow to the back of the head. Often
these types of combinations run into very long sequences of movements in which
if the attacker were to resist in any way the defender would not be able to
continue this series of application. For some reason, even though it’s
generally acknowledged to not work well, this method of training martial arts
applications has persisted in many schools and it is this method people often
think of when they talk about martial arts application.

In Choy Lay Fut Kung Fu, there are a few concepts that when
combined for the entire system. Once the core concepts are understood
everything else in the system is built from them and found in them. If a Choy Lay
fut practitioner truly understands these core concepts then no application in
any Choy lay fut form is “hidden” to them. The fundamental make up of the Choy
Lay Fut system as I teach it is based around the following ideas, the ten elements,
the 5 kicks, asterisk footwork (invasive/evasive stepping) and the gate theory.

The method of training techniques we use at HSMA is based in
the experiences I have had not only in real life self defense encounters but
also the experiences I have had in my time as a combat sport competitor and as
my time as a trainer. It has been my experience that the more concise a
combination or application of a technique is the higher the chance of success
will be. This being the case all of the techniques and combinations we practice
are usually limited to the smallest possible number. What is important is to keep the movements
simple and develop the intangible qualities needed to perform the techniques
under duress. In a past blog entry I detailed our progressive resistance method
of training Choy Lay Fut techniques. The
reason the progressive method works well is because it provides a way for the
practitioner to develop several qualities needed to in order to make a static
technique application work. Three basic qualities that are needed are speed,
power and precision. Most of a Choy Lay Fut practitioner’s solo training is
geared towards developing these three qualities as seen in the video below.

There are other qualities that
can only be developed properly through partner practice such as timing, distancing,
positioning and set up. All of these qualities
are needed in order to a martial arts application functional. Without these
qualities it wouldn’t matter if I made detailed video on the application of
every single movement in the Choy Lay Fut system, the individual that doesn’t possess
these qualities would never be able to make the applications work. The
only real “secret” in the martial arts is that your success lies in your own willingness
to train hard and persevere. It is only through the experience of countless
hours of training, that the application of any martial technique will be
possible.

With the rise of social networking sites and
video sharing like YouTube, the once “hidden” techniques of the martial arts
are being exposed. You can search any martial art on YouTube and find not just
video demonstrations but instructional videos as well. With the information
being shared freely by this generation the important question is not how to
obtain the information but rather what to do with it once you acquire it.

“Knowing is not enough, we must apply. Willing is
not enough, we must do.”- Bruce Lee

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Obesity in the United States has been increasingly cited as a major health issue in recent decades.
There are several factors that contribute to the rise in obesity. Sedentary
lifestyles coupled with the consumption of pre packaged processed “convenience”
foods seem to be the major contribution factors. If you find that you are obese
or would just lie to get leaner these are the two most important factors to
consider. I started practicing martial arts in my early teenage years; because
of this I have lived an active lifestyle. Yet before I practiced martial arts I
was overweight. When I first became involved in martial arts not only did I
dive headfirst into training I also began to watch what I ate. Within the 1st
3 months of my training I went from 180lbs to 160lbs. Though I have maintained
the same level of activity I did not maintain the same discipline in my diet.
During my 20’s I went from a lean 175lbs to at my heaviest 245lbs. The irony is
that at my heaviest I was the most active I had ever been. Not only did I train
twice a day but I also worked a physical job and taught martial arts at my
school. Most people believe that if you are active you can eat whatever you
want because you will just “burn it off”, nothing could be further from the
truth. Studies have shown that on average with heavy exercise such as jogging,
weight lifting or advanced aerobics you burn on average 10 calories per minute.
That would mean that in a 1 hour session you burn 600 calories. On average 1
muffin can contain 350 to 550 calories. This would mean if you chose to eat a
muffin for breakfast, a food many consider to be healthy, you would need to
perform a minimum of 35 minutes of hard exercise to burn it off. So even though
I was a disciplined trainer, my lack of discipline in the kitchen caused me to
become obese. This is not to argue the lack of importance in exercise, far from
being unimportant, exercise should be part of your overall strategy to get in
shape.

My NFMA instructors photo. My weight at the time this was taken was arounf 230lbs

Finding a meal
plan that works for you

Everyone is
different in regards to what meal plan works for them. During 2007, I was
preparing for a Sanda (full contact fighting) tournament. Part of preparing for
this tournament included attempting to get my weight down so I could enter a
lower weight class. At the time I was working closely with a kung fu brother of
mine who was reducing his weight by eliminating starches from his diet which by
the way was working well for him. When I tried this plan I failed miserably.
For that tournament I failed to make weight and was placed in the unlimited
weight class and had to fight an opponent much larger than I was and who
outweighed me by more than 60lbs. The moral of this tale is that some meal
plans work for some people others do not. From experience I found that if it is
exceptionally hard to stick to a meal plan you most likely will not. The reason
that I failed to succeed using the meal plan that my kung fu brother excelled
at was because I found it extremely difficult to stay with the program. I love
to eat noodles, which are a starchy food and not allowed under the program. The
thought of never being able to eat noodles again and not having a planned cheat
meal caused me to go on noodle binges. These binges were large and frequent
enough that it destroyed any progress I had made in the program. This is a very
common pitfall in fad or extreme diets. The key to successfully finding a meal
program that works for you is finding one you can stick to.

On the left at my heavist(245lbs) performing at the NFMA grand opening

Success

After some time trying to exercise my weight off while
still eating whatever I wanted, I decided to find a meal program that would
help me. It took me years of trying to work off the weight and struggling to
maintain a 5lbs weight loss before I found the motivation to research deeper
into my eating habits and find a program that actually worked for me.
Ironically calorie counting worked for me, most exponents of fad diets will
tell you that it is the most difficult method in an effort to sell you on their
product. In addition to counting calories I also allowed myself a cheat day in
which I could eat whatever I wanted. Allowing myself the cheat day increased my
will throughout the week when cravings arose I was able to curb them by telling
myself “I can’t now but on Friday…”. Another important factor when reducing
calories is the frequency of your meals. Reducing calories can send your body
into starvation mode which will increase the efficiency at which your body
stores fat. To combat this I eat low calorie meals about every 2 hours, this
raises my metabolism and increases my body’s fat burning while consuming few
calories.

photo of me on 9/5/12(on the right) at 190lbs

Something that surprised
me before I began calorie counting was a math equation I found to determine how
many calories I had to consume daily in order to maintain my weight. At the
time I did this equation I was weighing in somewhere between 235lbs to 240lbs.
What I found was I needed to consume somewhere around 5,000 calories a day just
to maintain that weight. The equation is as follows

Step 1

For men 66 + (6.23xweight in pounds) + (12.7xheight
in inches) – (6.8x age in years)

Take the number
from above and multiply it by the level of exercise below

1.2 Sedentary
lifestyle

1.375 Lightly
active

1.55 Moderately
active

1.7 Very active

1.9 Extremely
active

In order to lose
weight you need to take this number which is your base caloric needs per day to
maintain weight and subtract 500 calories from your meal plan.

Personal Meal
Plan

My current plan
is roughly 1500 calories planned in 5 small meals throughout the day. Sometimes
I increase it to 1800 depending on how I feel. Before I began this program in
March of 2012 I weighed in at 235- 240 lbs and I was able to get my weight down
to a strong 190lbs (for a total of 50lbs weight loss) as I am writing this. One
of the most common asked questions about my meal plan is if I have enough
energy. I currently have more energy throughout the day and am able to train
harder and longer, than I was able to when I consumed 5,000 calories per day. Below is what I had to eat yesterday.

Meal 1

Fruit and Yogurt
bowl

1 cup Greek
yogurt

1 cup frozen
blueberries

½ cup bran cereal

Total calories
293

Meal 2

Egg sandwich

2 eggs

1 low calorie bun

2 strips turkey
bacon

Total calories
307

Meal 3

Grilled Chicken
Salad

3oz of grilled
chicken breast

3 cups of mixed greens

1 tomato

1 small pear

2 tablespoons of
fat free dressing

Total calories
283

Meal 4

1 cup low fat Cottage
cheese

1 small apple

Total calories
200

Meal 5

1 power bar

1 apple

Total Calories
350

Health concerns

Weight loss wasn’t
the only motivation for me to start this program. For a few years prior to
starting this program I frequently experience migraine headaches. These
headaches became so severe I often would vomit and become unable to function
for the rest of the day. At first I would get one of these headaches about once
a month or less but soon I was experiencing these headaches on an almost daily
basis. I had thought of a multitude of reasons that this was happening things
like cancer, tumors etc. Some people who knew about these headaches thought I
was on drugs. After doing some of my own research on the subject it turns out I
was on a drug, that drug was caffeine. During the time I was lax in my eating
habits I was consuming large quantities of sweetened and caffeinated beverages.
I would sometimes drink up to six cans of soda per day. The migraine headaches
were caused by caffeine withdrawals. I found a simple method of kicking the caffeine
habit which I had to do before I began my meal plan. The first step was to
eliminate the caffeine from what was my diet then. When I would start to feel a
headache come on I would fix a small cup of tea and drink it. In this way I was
able to slowly reduce the amount of caffeine I was taking in until I no longer
needed any at all. With my current meal plan in place I have not experienced a
single headache. In addition to solving that problem with the reduction in
weight I no longer experience back pain from work and have become more
functional as a martial artist.

When people ask
me what kung fu is for I usually say that kung fu is a skill set designed to incapacitate
an opponent. While it is my unwavering belief that this is true, the motivation
to improve this skill set can have many benefits in the other aspects of life.
If it wasn’t for my desire to “incapacitate and opponent” I would have never
had the motivation to increase my fitness level and by extension my overall
health.

Wednesday, October 31, 2012

While
teaching at the Hung Sing Martial Arts Association I sometimes talk to students
individually about their feelings in regards to their training progress. While
happy with the class and instruction they receive often student’s comment that
they don’t feel they are progressing fast enough. A simple solution to
the problem is usually found when looking at both the composition and frequency
of their training program. These students usually only attend a 1 hour class
1-2x per week. They also do no supplementary training outside of these class
times. Training in Kung Fu is different form a typical western style weight
training regimen. While strength training, it is essential to have rest days
between workouts and many programs advocate changing workouts frequently to “confuse”
the muscle and promote continued gains. In training Choy Lay Fut the main
concern is skill acquisition. This is done through daily training of the same
movements in order to build familiarity with the movement. Learning Choy Lay Fut
is similar to learning to drive a car. At first you may need to think about
every action you take but though many hours of countless repetition of the same
actions a season driver acts instinctively to whatever situation they may find
themselves in. It’s this kind of familiarity we seek to gain through daily
training.

Part of a video record of the training at the Hung Sing Martial Arts Association

Year
round training with no rest, even during the hottest days of summer and coldest
days of winter, hard training and perseverance are the way to learn real kung
fu

The key
to gaining progress in the practice of Choy Lay Fut is a consistent and well thought
out approach to training. With good planning and even the busiest person can
make steady gains in their training and learn the entire curriculum we teach. The
1st step is personal training regimen that can be practiced at home
on the days you can’t attend your regular class. The school I’ve trained at for
over 10 years, The Ng Family Chinese Martial Arts Association, according to Google
maps is 58.4 miles from my home. This has meant that through the years I have
only been able to attend 1 class a week on average. Yet despite this distance
and low attendance I have been able to become one of the schools top instructors
and have kept pace with my training brothers. The way I was able to do this
lies in my approach to training. The one day a week I am able to attend class I
focus not so much on “getting a workout” as I do learning and absorbing new
information. That information I acquired is then trained throughout the week in
my own personal daily training regimen.

Beginner’s
regimen

When my
students express concern that they aren’t making progress I always ask them if
they train at home. Usually the answer will be to the effect of “I don’t know
what to practice”. Each student has different weak points that need work or
different goals. With that in mind realize that no 2 student’s regimen should
be the same, also over time a student’s needs change with the progress they
make in their training. That said, a good guideline for what you need to
practice in our system is by following yourplace in the curriculumand designing your training regimen based on that place and you personal needs.

Below is
a sample base program that can be followed by a new student who is a 1st
level yellow sash

Following
this basic base routine should take roughly 25 minutes and will cover all the
basic needs of a student at this level. As a student’s needs change techniques
can be added or exercises changed to reflect the current needs of the student.

Current
Training Regimen

Below is
my current daily training regimen. This regimen is an example of what a workout
regimen will look like at the advanced stages of our curriculum. One thing to
take note of, though i have been training in this system for more than 10 years,
the fundamentals of this system are practiced 2x per day. This is done to
underscore the importance of these basic movements in everything else done in
this system. No practitioner of Choy Lay Fut no matter how seasoned is above
training the fundamentals

Each
empty hand form is paired with a weapon from(except #1 which is 3 empty hand
forms) and done with no rest. There is a 30 second rest between pairs

1.Ng
Lun Ma- Ng Lun Choi- Siu Ching Kuen

2.Siu moi
fah kuen- ng long bat gwa gwun

3.Lohan
kuen- moi fah dan dao

4.Siu kau
da kuen- moi fah cheung

5.Lin wan
kuen- serng sap jai

6.Dai kau
da kuen- wu dip serng do

7.Che sin
kuen- hung jia pang

8.Fut jerng-
dai dao

9.Gum pau
ping jang kuen- moi fah serng dao

When a
performance is coming up I focus this portion of training on 1 form and break
it into sections. I train each section 10x then practice the entire form 3x.
This is done 2 weeks prior to the performance

Strength
training

Monday/Wednesday

Forearm
routine

1.Upside
down sit ups- 3 sets of 10

2.Wrist
curl- 3 sets of 10

3.Reverse
wrist curl- 3 sets of 10

4.Reverse
curl- 3 sets of 10

5.Leverage
bar- 3 sets of 10

6.Leverage
bar twist- 3 sets of 10

7.Wrist
roller- 3 windings

Tuesday/Thursday

General
Developments Routine

1.Upside
down sit up- 3 sets of 10

2.Clean
and press- 2 sets of 10

3.Curl-
2 sets of 10

4.Overhead
press- 2 sets of 10

5.Upright
row- 2 sets of 10

6.Squat-
2 sets of 15

7.Pull
up- 2 sets of 10

8.Bench
press- 2 sets of 10

9.Hanging
row- 2 sets of 10

Though
this program seems like a lot of volume the morning session takes roughly an
hour and the afternoon session roughly takes 1 hr 45min to 2hrs. In addition to
this program which I follow Monday through Thursday Teach my students a minimum
of 2 hrs per day during which I drill and spar with them. Friday is my day of
rest, Saturdays I train at NFMA and Sunday I train students for 3 hours.

The Sifu
can only lead you to the door, you must enter it yourself

As a
martial artist it is important that you assess your goals and take the proper
steps to achieve them. With proper planning your can take advantage of whatever
time you have available to you and make the most out of it.

Blog Archive

www.HungSingChoyLayFut.com

Sifu Chris Childs is a 6th generation instructor of Choy Lay Fut Kung Fu under Grand Master Sam Ng. Sifu Childs has practiced the Choy Lay Fut method for over 10 years and in that time has placed 1st in several national and international martial arts tournaments and has participated in hundreds of martial arts demonstrations throughout the world. Sifu Childs was certified as an instructor of the Choy Lay Fut method in 2005 by the Ng Family Chinese Martial Arts Association and received another instructor certification in 2013 by the Chan Heung Choy Lay Fut Founder Association of Hong Kong. Sifu Childs has dedicated himself to the promotion and dissemination of the Choy Lay Fut method. With that goal in mind he has authored several articles for Kung Fu Taichi magazine, taught seminars throughout the united states, published numerous videos displaying and teaching Choy Lay Fut and also continues to teach students though his own martial arts school, the Hung Sing Martial Arts Association.